July 5, 2017
Another day
Cycling Stats & Travel Stats
Start Point: Ticllos, Ancash, Peru
Destination: Just outside Rajan, Ancash, Peru
36.6 km, 8.6 km/h average speed, 34.9 km/h maximum speed, 4:10 time on the bike
877 meters gained, 855 meters elevation descend, 3678 meters maximum elevation
Route Description:
The day starts with a 20 km downhill where you drop 600 meters. It is still a good gravel road and rideable. Then you start a constant climb. You come to a junction at Cajamarquilla. Here you take the right dirt road track and basically you bypass town and avoid going downhill. We continued until we found water and then stopped to camp at a flat spot just before Rajan. You could possibly make Rajan however there are no hotels here so not really worth it.
Accommodations:
There are no hotels along this route unless you choose to stop in Cajamarquilla. We heard there might be a hospedeje and we heard from another cyclist they were permitted to sleep in the town hall. Rajan a bit further down the road from where we stopped also did not have any accommodations.
What happened…
Andrew writes: It was tough leaving today. The Italians were making pizza dough, promising us another exquisite meal and wonderful company. We had places to go and things to see however, and so we were off. The ride today ended up being a “full-day” though, with an equal mix of up and downhill. We met Georgina “Georgie” Rutherford, an Australian who is seven months out of Ushuaia heading for Colombia. She has probably the least amount of gear that I’ve seen on a trans-continental cyclist since that guy wearing blue jeans with a guitar strapped to his bike that I met in Long Beach, California back in 2007. We recommended Georgie cut her day short in Ticllos and to enjoy the pizza-pie. I felt a bit of jealousy at this point. And so on we continued southward, towards Rajan. There were few opportunities to find water though, and so I think we ended up riding a little bit longer than we had planned and we knew that we would fall short of our planned destination. Fortunately we found an abandoned mining town with a gushing waterfall, and a nice spot to camp and we enjoyed a nice night with a full-moon above us.
Amanda writes: One of the things I like best about cycling with Nici and Philip is the pace when they are pedalling. Andrew seems less inclined to pressure me to go faster or further. Today was a pretty long slog of up, up and more up. We all agreed at almost the exact same moment to pull the plug when we found a flat spot. Nici seemed to have the most energy of all of us near the end of the day as she pedalled up a really steep hill that I was ready to push. It’s great when you’re with someone who inspires you to push a bit harder and I was glad to have Nici and Philip by our side today. Tomorrow promises to have some downhill so we’re looking forward to that.
The aerial view of our ride: